


Adore You

by datleggy



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Family Bonding, Gen, Hurt Evan "Buck" Buckley, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Men Crying, Protective Diaz Family, Protective Eddie Diaz, Protective Fire!Fam, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-31
Updated: 2020-04-11
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:08:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23410723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/datleggy/pseuds/datleggy
Summary: Prompt: Eddie’s parents come to visit unexpectedly. They barge into his bedroom as parents often do and are stunned to see Eddie, Buck, and Chris together holding each other in bed. They’re about to freak out when they notice that Buck is bruised and bandaged, Chris is clinging to him and Eddie is super protective. Eddie’s parents are floored when Eddie explains that some evil bastard tried to attack Chris with a bat and Buck shielded him, getting beat to hell. It’s clear Eddie won’t let Buck go.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley & Christopher Diaz & Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV), Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV), Helena Diaz/Ramon Diaz (9-1-1 TV)
Comments: 53
Kudos: 841





	1. Chapter 1

It’s supposed to be a surprise. A fun surprise—planned by Helena, of course, Ramon isn’t really the type to act on a whim, but Helena loves the impulsiveness of it all, and he loves her and so here they are. 

It’s late at night now, because their flight was delayed by a couple of hours, but thankfully today is a Friday, which means Christopher doesn’t have school in the morning. Helena feels a little less guilty about barging in so late, knowing her grand kid can sleep in the next day while she makes his favorite blueberry waffles. 

“It’s almost ten o’clock.” Ramon says, glancing worriedly at his wrist watch as his wife digs into her purse for their copy of Eddie’s house keys. “Maybe this should wait til morning, no?” 

Helena triumphantly retrieves the keys and grins. “Shh, it’s fine. It has to be today.” she half whispers, opening the door, trying to make as little noise as humanly possible. She’s only got two more hours to wish her son a happy birthday, after all, before it passes. It’s ninety percent of the reason they’re even here!

If Ramon and Helena weren’t so focused on being sneaky, on making sure their steps are light as can be, they might have noticed the fact that roughly two weeks ago their son invited a third person to come live with him. But they’re too busy shushing one another, so they ignore all the traces of an unfamiliar occupant in the house. 

Helena has the decency to knock on her son’s door, giving him just a few seconds of notice before throwing it open and shouting “Surprise!” 

The surprise is all hers, however, as the door swings open to reveal her grandson crammed in the bed, between Eddie and…his coworker? 

Ramon blinks, shocked, “What the _hell_ is going on—” 

Eddie is out of bed and practically shoving his parents out of the room within seconds, shielding his boys out of view and slamming the door shut behind him. “What are you guys even doing here right now?” he demands to know, forcibly leading them away from his bedroom and towards the end of the hall. 

Helena shakes her head. “We came to surprise you, Edmundo, for your _birthday_. But what is going on? Was that Buck in there? Your coworker? Why was he in bed with you and Christopher? Eddie that’s not–”

“Not any of your business.” Eddie crosses his arms over his chest, his jaw ticking. Helena can see that her son is itching to run back to his boys. She can see that the standoffish attitude is actually defensiveness, and she wonders why. 

Ramon, who’s just as stubborn as their son, if not more so, immediately goes on the offense. “Don’t talk to your mother like that! Now tell me why–” 

The bedroom door creaks open and Ramon sucks in a harsh breath when he sees the state of his son’s coworker. Buck is leaning precariously against the door frame, and now that he’s not under the covers, Ramon and Helena can see the brutal extent of the young mans injuries. 

He’s wearing a pair of pajama pants and what looks to be one of Eddie’s sleeveless, oversized workout shirts. They can see the gauze wrapped around his chest, peeking through the holes of the sides of the shirt. There’s nasty bruising going all the way up from his clavicle to the nape of his neck. His right arm is black and blue, from his forearm down to his wrist, and the most alarming injury yet: the white gauze going around his head, stained red in the middle. 

As awful as he looks, he’s still somehow standing, though just barely. 

“Eddie, c’mon, don’t fight, it’s not a big deal, I can go, I’ll be fine.” Buck says, trying to disperse some of the tension in the air, among the Diaz family. 

“Buck, _no_ , there’s no way you’re leaving!” Eddie starts to say, clearly panicking, when Christopher interrupts, coming out of the room and clinging to Buck’s leg with all his might. 

“Bucky no! Please! You can’t go!” he starts to cry, his little shoulders shaking. 

Buck looks down, dismayed—he hates to see Christopher like this, but he’s only causing trouble right now, “It’s ok buddy, I promise, I’ll be fine, but it’s probably best if I go–” 

“You _will_ go.” Ramon says, his voice booming and authoritative. He can see his son start to argue with him, and even his wife begins to counter him, when Ramon finishes with, “Straight back to bed, young man. _Vamos_. You don’t look like you’re in any state to be going anywhere right now.” 

Eddie blinks, shocked when both his parents start corralling Buck and Christopher back to his room. Helena stops just at the threshold and watches Ramon very carefully help a slightly dazed Buck back into bed. She turns back to her son and silently gestures for him to follow her into the kitchen, where they can speak privately.


	2. Chapter 2

“How did it happen? Did this happen during a call?” Helena asks, horrified. “Were you with him? Are _you_ alright? What on earth happened?” 

Eddie shakes his head. He doesn’t know where to start, or if he even wants to. Helena reaches across the kitchen counter and squeezes his shoulder. “I’m sorry, I know I’m asking a lot of questions, and I’m sure you’ve been through a lot today, just take your time.” 

Ramon walks in then, scratching the back of his neck. “I tried to get Christopher to go to his own room, so your friend could rest more comfortably but he wasn’t having it. What the hell happened?” 

Eddie tries to remain stoic. He’s always been the “strong” and “stubborn” one in his family, after all. “It happened this morning.” 

God, was it only this morning? It feels like a lifetime has passed since the incident occurred. 

“We went to iHop, you know, to celebrate my birthday—plus it’s Christopher’s favorite breakfast place. We were planning to go to six flags, but I needed to get gas so we stopped at some off the road place on the way. The stupid machine wouldn’t take my card so I had to go inside to talk to the cashier and,” Eddie pauses to take a big breath. 

It doesn’t help. 

“It took forever, I was in there for so long, and the whole time they—” Eddie slams a fist against the counter top, angrier than he can ever remember being. “Christopher had to go to the bathroom so Buck took him to the restroom at the back of the place and when they came out there was this group of punks with bats, just looking for trouble wherever they could find it. And they—they went to take a swing at Christopher.” 

Helena gasps audibly, clutching her chest. “They did _what_?” 

Ramon puts an arm around his wife and holds her tight. 

Eddie’s jaw ticks and anger is radiating off of him like steam. “Those _malditos_ started swinging and Buck shielded Christopher from the blows. He tried to fight them off but there were so many of them—someone saw and called 9-1-1 from their car, by the time I was done inside I heard the commotion outside and—” Eddie leans against the counter, defeated. “I was too late. They’d run off and beat the living hell out of Buck. Christopher didn’t have a scratch on him, but he saw the whole thing.” 

Helena is shaking by the time Eddie’s finished, with fear and indignation and concern. “The police haven’t caught those animals?!” 

Eddie shakes his head. 

“I can’t believe they discharged your friend from the hospital so quickly—you did take him, no?” Ramon questions, brows furrowed. 

Eddie huffs, exasperated. All he wants to do is be back in bed, comforting his boys. He’s tired of answering questions. “Of course I did. He was unresponsive at the scene, we had to call an ambulance. We’re not family so they wouldn’t let us stay after visiting hours were over. Christopher nearly had a panic attack at just the idea of having to leave Buck, so he discharged himself against medical advice and I brought him home.” 

“’Home’? You mean here, to your house.” Ramon says, giving him a funny look. 

Eddie hadn’t planned to tell them like this, had been fretting over how to even bring it up, in fact, for months now, but after today, none of his worries seem to matter. “No, home. _Our_ home. Buck moved in a couple of weeks ago.” 

“What do you mean moved in? You’re—Edmundo are you telling me you’re…?” Ramon doesn’t know quite how to finish that sentence. 

Eddie squares his shoulders. “I don’t know what I am, except that I’m in love with Buck, and if you can’t accept that then you know where the door is.” 

Ramon folds his arms across his chest. “However I feel about that isn’t important right now. What’s important is getting you three through this. Go, get back to bed. I’ll make some tea. Go.” 

It’s certainly not the reaction he was expecting, and Helena ends up having to lead her son by the shoulders down the hall and to his bedroom door. “Is there any medication he should be taking?” she asks. “Did you guys eat anything besides breakfast today?” 

Eddie shakes his head. “Um, no, not really. And uh, yeah, yeah, he took a couple of pain killers earlier, but his next dose is due in an hour. The pills are near the sink in the kitchen, I should–”

“Leave it. You heard what your dad said, we got this, ok?” 

Eddie nods, a little numbly. “Ok.” 

When he enters the room Buck and Christopher have been tucked in by his dad and Christopher is like a limpet, the way he clings to Buck. Buck looks absolutely exhausted, but he’s in too much pain to rest comfortably. He should still be in the hospital, getting medication through an IV drip. 

“Everything ok?” he asks, his voice a rasp. 

Eddie nods, settling onto Buck’s other side. “Forget about that. How’s the pain?” 

“Manageable.” he lies, relaxing a fraction under Eddie’s soft touch. “I’ll be fine.”


	3. Chapter 3

Helena doesn't say anything for several moments as she and Ramon work silently in the kitchen beside one another. Ramon boils the water for the tea over the stove and Helena sets about chopping up herbs and veggies for a nice caldo---they might be too tired to eat anything tonight, it is late, after all, but come tomorrow, for lunch perhaps, she thinks they'll enjoy some homemade soup.

It's only when her husband is handling the teabags that Helena stops cutting, the knife now limp in her hand and says what she's been mulling over in her head this whole time. "Ramon, do you think Tia Peppa and Abuela know?"

"About what happened?"

"No," she shakes her head. "About Eddie and his friend Buck, about them _living_ together."

Ramon shrugs. "Probably."

"Why wouldn't they tell us?" Helena drops the knife, huffing, and folds her arms across her chest. "Why wouldn't Eddie tell us?" What did he think of them, that he'd want to keep hiding such a large chunk of his life from them?

"Who knows," Ramon sighs, adding a few drops of lemon to the tea that's meant for his son's coworker. From all the raspiness in his voice, it sounds like the kid could use some. "Maybe he's not serious about the relationship? There are other reasons people move in together. Financial reasons, for example."

Helena doesn't argue with her husband; if that's what he wants to believe, that's what he'll continue on believing until someone proves him wrong. "Here," she hands him a pill bottle on the counter. "These are for Eddie's financial-reasons-only-roommate. He'll need them soon. Bring it with the tea."

Ramon rolls his eyes at her teasing but takes the bottle, placing the pills on a small tray with the cups.

He forgets himself for a split second. He forgets he's not home in Texas, that he has to knock on doors in this house. By the time he remembers Ramon has the door to his son's master bedroom slightly ajar and he can't quite bring himself to look away, though he knows he ought to.

"The ER doctor said if the pain is really bad it won't hurt to give you the meds a little ahead of schedule." Eddie's half-whispering because Christopher's gone back to sleep on the other side of Buck, but Ramon still catches most of that sentence and glances at the bottle on his tray.

"It's not that bad. I can deal with it." he hears Buck disagree, though the breathy tone gives him away.

Ramon stares, though he knows he should turn away or announce his presence already. Instead he looks on as his son, back turned to the door, reaches over and starts to gently massage the back of Buck's neck, trying to relieve some tension, whispering comforting nothing's in Spanish, a small but pleased smile when Buck leans into his touch, sighing softly into the mattress.

Ramon clears his throat then, not loud enough to wake his grandson, but loudly enough that Eddie and Buck both jump at the abrupt intrusion. Buck winces, holding himself stiffly and trying to breathe through the onslaught of pain.

Eddie grimaces, turning to Ramon. "Damn it dad, _knock_." he quickly turns his attention back to Buck though, helping him sit up with a tenderness Ramon can only recall witnessing when his son is interacting with Christopher.

He should apologize, but Ramon's never been a man of many words and he believes actions speak louder anyway, so instead he walks the rest of the way into the room and sets the tray down after making some space on the nightstand. "This will help a little." he says, gesturing towards the tea, and then he holds up the bottle of painkillers. "These will help a lot. You should take 'em now, son." he advises.

Eddie stops glaring and actually looks grateful when Buck agrees to take the pills. "Thanks." he says to his dad, only slightly reluctant.

Ramon nods, staring for a few moments more, as Eddie holds the cup of tea up for Buck to drink out of so that he can wash down the pills. He shuffles out of the room, closing the door behind him, now empty tray in hand, and walks back into the kitchen, where his wife has started on her chicken broth.

"That took a while, is everyone ok?" Helena frowns at her own question. Of course no one is ok. But she knows her husband will know what she means without her having to reiterate.

"That Buck boy's got Edmundo wrapped around his finger." Helena isn't surprised by the words, but by the way Ramon looks when he says them; _fond_.

It's nearing the witching hour when Buck manages to sneak out of bed, from between his two boys. Eddie's finally getting some rest---God knows he needs it after the hellish day they've been through---so Buck is careful not to disturb either of them on his way out.

He struggles down the hall and as he's turning the corner he bumps right into Eddie's dad, who's also roaming about well past midnight. Buck holds back a whimper, panting out an apology.

"What are you doing up?" Ramon helps Buck stay upright, his brows furrowing in concern at how pale the kid's turned.

"Bathroom." Buck says, stumbling, even with Ramon there to guide him.

Ramon gives him a look. "Bathroom's the other way, son, you wanna' try that again?"

Buck doesn't look him in the eye. "Would you believe me if I said I got turned around?"

"Come on," Ramon helps him into the living room, "Sit, before you keel over on me."

Buck does as he's told, letting out a relieved breath, his body screaming at him to stop moving. "Thank you."

"I should be saying that to you." Ramon counters, face serious. "You saved my Christopher's life." He expects a "you're welcome" or a casual, "no problem.", maybe even one of those humble little, "it's what anyone would have done."

What he's not expecting is for Buck to shake his head vehemently and start to weep, big fat tears rolling down his cheeks, though he tries his best to swipe them away, angry with himself for breaking down like this. Great first impressions, really.

"They could have k---" Buck chokes on a sob and puts his face in his hands, hiding. "They almost took him from me, when I saw that bat swinging down towards his head--- _they almost killed my baby_." he's shaking something terrible. He just needs five minutes to himself; it's why he was headed to the porch outside before Ramon found him. Just five minutes to be angry and grieve for what he nearly lost. It was too close of a call and all of his nerves are still so _raw_ from the absolute fucking horror that could have been.

Ramon suddenly finds it hard to swallow, his chest tight with emotion. He's been trying not to think about what happened, if he's honest with himself, focusing instead on making tea and helping his wife with the caldo for the next day---it's easier to look for distractions in times like these.

He sits right beside Buck and without further reservations, he puts an arm around the young mans' shoulder and pulls him in, letting Buck sob into his shoulder. "Hey," Ramon's voice cracks just a little, but he ignores it, the palm of his hand coming down softly atop the blonde head, carefully, mindful of Buck's countless injuries, "Christopher's ok, he's just down that hall there, _safe_ , sleeping soundly, and that's because of you."

Buck's shoulders shake with each ragged cry that tears past his throat, but those words bring a comfort he's not expecting and he buries himself into Ramon, seeking more.

The older man readily provides, holding him close.


End file.
